1. Field of Invention:
This invention relates to horology, particularly to a novel means for indicating the time of day.
2. Prior Art:
Analog Timepieces
Timepieces with moving hands, known as analog timepieces, have been used for centuries and are well known. Modifications of this basic concept have been made from time to time. An example of such a modification is taught by J. R. Bailey, U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,879, 1976. Bailey employs a series of endless belts with indicators affixed to each belt. The indicators move with their associated belts in a fashion representative of the time and are viewed through a faceplate. The faceplate is inscribed with time indications (i.e. month, day, hour, minute, second, etc.). The time is determined by noting the positions of the belt-indicia as they move in their respective slots adjacent to the time indications on the faceplate. (In a later patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,103,484, 1978, Bailey describes another mechanism for moving his time-indicating indicia.)
At its simplest, the face of Bailey's clock, (FIG. 13) shows a series of thirteen numbers (12, 1, 2, . . . 12, with indicators for the quarter-hours. At its most complex (FIGS. 23 and 24), Bailey's clock offers a bewildering and unaesthetic array of days of the week, hours, minutes, and seconds, each of which is accompanied by its appropriate subdivisions, e.g., 60-second markers with numerical indicia at 0, 10, . . . ; 60-minute markers with numerical indicia at 0, 10, . . . , and so forth. Thus the user will find it difficult to tell the time from Bailey's relatively complicated clock face.
Another departure from the ordinary circular clock face is taught by J. M. Torroja in U.S. Pat. No. 2,333,832, 1943. Torroja's clock employs a faceplate with the numbers corresponding to the hours and the minutes printed in straight lines. Pointers reach around the faceplate from behind and move along the rows of numbers to indicate the hours and minutes. In a fashion similar to Bailey and Schanz (below), Torroja shows a clock face in which the thirteen numbers, 12 and 1 through 12, are presented on the front of the clock for the user along with the possibility of a second row of seven numbers for the seconds. Because of the large array of constantly-displayed numbers, the user will find Torroja's clock face relatively complex and hence difficult to use. Also Torroja's clock face is visually prosaic.
J. L. Schanz, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,221,413, 1940, teaches a "straight-line" clock with moving indicators. In appearance this timepiece is similar to the simplest of Bailey's versions (cf. Schanz, FIG. 1, with Bailey, FIGS. 13 and 14) and to Torroja's FIG. 1. Schanz'clock suffers from the same disadvantages as Bailey's and Torroja's. All of them require more than casual study, certainly more than a glance, in order to tell the time.
J. Goodchild, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,691, 1982, uses two moving orthogonally-oriented lines. One line has numbers indicative of minutes, the other has numbers indicative of hours. As the lines move with respect to one another, their intersection moves. The number at the intersection of the lines indicates the time. Insofar as Goodchild's clock indicates the time by the intersection of the two lines mentioned above, it is an "area" clock as opposed to a "linear" clock. Because two axes are required to display the time (one for hours, one for minutes) Goodchild's clock occupies significantly more space than a one-dimensional "linear" clock.
K. Ingendahl, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,161,098, 1979, teaches a device for telling the time which is not appropriate for use as a primary timepiece. His invention is an object d'art. It is difficult or impossible for one, on seeing this object for the first time, to realize, without further instruction, (1) that it is a clock, and (2) to determine the correct time.
G. T. Ladas, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,574,992, 1971, teaches a timepiece which aims to imitate the minimalism (simplicity) in architecture and interior design. It involves a reduction in visible detail, including all numerical indicia on the surface of the clock. Ladas' clock employs an assembly of lighted rectangles. The rectangles are lit in sequence according to the time. (FIGS. 1, 2, and 4.) Ladas concedes that the "novel display in accordance with the invention entails some degree of reconditioning in reading time" and that the time-display "though perhaps mysterious to the uninitiated, is perfectly clear and aesthetically satisfying to the knowledgeable owner." This exercise in abstract design is, like Ingendahl's clock, a work of art. It is not appropriate as a primary timepiece, and has the same difficulties as the most complicated of Bailey's designs, though for the opposite reason, the absence of detail.
3. Prior Art:
Digital Timepieces
Timepieces which indicate the time by means of changing digits, usually in Arabic numerals, are also well known, but suffer from a number of serious disadvantages.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,270,196, 1981, B. A. Terzian presents (FIG. 1) what he calls "balanced complementary digital time displays." This is a method of telling the time in which multiple digital displays are used to indicate the time. A principal minutes display indicates the passage of the minutes of the hour. Simultaneously, a second minutes display indicates complementary minute digit values which decrease as time advances. Terzian's design is complex and not easily read. More attention has been given in the development of his clock to the prominent display of the number of minutes elapsed or remaining in the current hour or to the display of the following hour than to establishing the current hour itself.
This same tendency is shown in the clock of Terzian's U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,497, 1981, FIGS. 4 and 5. The time represented on the clock faces in these figures are 9:42 and 9:54. With practice, one could learn to read the time from Terzian's inventions as described in these two patents, but the potential for error would be extremely high. It would not be easy to read the time from these clocks at a glance as one might normally wish to do throughout the course of a day.
Identical difficulties are encountered in the clock of Terzian's U.S. Pat. No. 4,483,628, 1984. See in particular FIG. 3.